New York Times and New Yorker Harvey Weinstein stories win joint Pulitzer Prize as Buzzfeed only UK news team to receive nod

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The New York Times and New Yorker’s work exposing Harvey Weinstein, which led to the worldwide #MeToo movement of women speaking up about sexual assault, has won this year’s Pulitzer Prize.

The Public Service category of the prestigious awards was won by the two US titles for their “explosive, impactful journalism that exposed powerful and wealthy sexual predators, including allegations against one of Hollywood’s most influential producers”.

The winning work included New York Times pieces by actresses writing about their own experiences, including Salma Hayek’s “Harvey Weinstein is my monster too” and Lupita Nyong’o’s “Speaking out about Harvey Weinstein”.

It also included pieces about Bill O’Reilly, who was fired from Fox News after the New York Times revealed he had paid various women nearly $50m to settled numerous sexual harassment lawsuits.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.

Announced last night, one of the other big Pulitzer Prizes was awarded to the Washington Post in the Investigative Reporting category for its work revealing Roy Moore’s alleged past sexual harassment of teenage girls ahead of the Senate race in Alabama.

The winners of the International Reporting category were Clare Baldwin, Andrew RC Marshall and Manuel Mogato of Reuters, for “relentless reporting that exposed the brutal killing campaign behind Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs”.

Nominated as finalists in that category were Buzzfeed News staff who worked on an investigation into mysterious deaths linked to Russia on British and American soil. They were the only mainly UK team to be shortlisted.

Staff in the UK and US were shortlisted for six pieces published in June last year, plus one in July and one further story in December.

The investigation, which found 14 deaths on British soil that US spy agencies have linked to Russia, gained wider attention following the poisoning last month of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

The Buzzfeed News team was shortlisted “for a stunning probe across two continents that proved that operatives with apparent ties to Vladimir Putin have engaged in a targeted killing campaign against his perceived enemies on British and American soil”.

Heidi Blake, investigations editor at Buzzfeed UK, tweeted that she was “utterly blown away” by the nomination and that working with her investigations team had been the “greatest privilege” of her career.
Buzzfeed News UK investigations team: Richard Holmes, Jane Bradley, Heidi Blake, Tom Warren and Alex Campbell (L-R). Picture: Buzzfeed

Those involved in the investigation included investigative reporters Tom Warren, Jason Leopold, Richard Holmes and Jane Bradley, as well as investigations and projects editor Mark Schoofs, and deputy UK investigations editor Alex Campbell.